Things are awful quite...

What's going on with the "Arab Spring" everyone has been shouting about? Egypt got rid of their leader and handed everything over to the military but since then things have been pretty quite. No stories about new political parties vying to fill the void and no real confirmation on when the elections will happen. How about the economy and employment situation? Has any improvements been instituted yet? 

Tunisia, who started the revolution ball rooling has also been quite. The job situation fueled the rebellion but there has been no word about any improvements or new policies implemented to meet the protesters damands. The only thing they have accomplished is getting rid of the old leader. Shouldn't we be hearing about the progress in implmenting new policies for employment and the economy?

Libya is in the middle of a full fledged civil war so I don't expect anyhting to change there until the country is totally destroyed and they have nothing left to fight over. France is getting the opportunity to test their weapon systems in a realtime environment while the US is trying to remain in the background except when an operation calls for the kind of skills the other members of NATO do not possess.

Syria is busy killing everyone protesting the government with support from Iran and no one is paying attention in the UN.

Bahrain had to get support from Saudi Arabia to put down the protests in that country but the conflict in Bahrain was the work of Iran. Iran is doing everything they can to destablize the country along the Sunni-Shia boundries. Fortunately it looks like the Bahrain government has things under control.

This whole "Arab Spring" has so far been nothing but a sloganeering and alot of wishful thinking. People are braying about the new middle east but frankly I don't see any improvements being suggested let alone enacted. It's easy to man the barricades and shout slogans while fireing AK-47s in the air. Before you depose a government you probably should have a plan on what you intend to do once the government collapses. As with anything it's the details that matter not the bluster.

Israel is doing what they always do and that is keeping a sharp eye on their boarders. When people tried to swarm Israels borders last week from Syria, Egypt, Gaza, and the West bank to protest the 1948 war where Israel kicked their asses and claimed the land gained after fighting a defensive war. The Arabs are still screaming that it's not fair and they basically want a do ever. As far as the Arab citizens go they actually believe they won the 73 war since all the Arab countries involved have never published anything but lies and propaganda to their citizens. Even their school text books claim they won the war and that Israel attacked them. This blatant type of indoctrination is at the root of all the current problems between Israel and the Arabs. The Arabs also want to ignore the fact that they attacked Israel in 1973 and lost even more land after Israel cleaned their clocks. They basically want the land they lost in 3 wars of aggression and they have not even acknowledged this fact let alone offer an apology.  People have tried to say the most recent actions against Israel was a revolution along the lines of the others but none of the other countries going through the upheavals involved invading another country.

The US is being quite and pretty much neutral across the board waiting for the end game when they will approach the winners of these conflicts. Good strategy if you ask me.

Taking out Osama has also kept things interesting. The Pakistan ISI looks weak and ineffective because Osama was holed up across the street from their military academy for 5 years without them knowing. Of course the ISI could have known all along and chose not to reveal the fact but they certainly can't publicize this information to show the world they are not idiots. Pakistan was punked by the US and their military base was attacked over the weekend by the Taliban making the military look like incompetent boobs and this has raised the question on whether they can secure their nuclear weapons. Pakistan is also getting ready to lose the monetary support the US is handing out because of their mistakes. It's funny, Pakistan made a big deal of getting China to build a new deep water port thus sending the US a message that they have friends else where, however the Chinese government announced they had never been approached for this deal and they certainly have not entered into any agreement with Pakistan in this matter.

It's Getting Unbearable...

I don't know why I am so upset about the events happening in the middle east and it's relationship with Israel but I am. I am neither Jewish or of Arab descent so I really don't know why the current events surrounding these issues bother me. Masses of people from all over the world have abandoned reality and created a make believe narrative that will ultimately result in large scale death and destruction. I am dumbfounded when I see people who are supposed to be scholars re-writing history to support thier predetermined opinions on how Israel should behave. Even the most well know facts are being replaced by people who will wake up one day and say "my god what have I done?" . Some basic facts:

• Israel was home to both Arab and Jewish populations. FACT
• Israel became a safe haven for Jews when large numbers of them were driven out of the other middle east countries. FACT
• Israel also offered Europe's remaining Jewish citizens after WW2 a safe place to live. FACT
• I know the holocaust was 65 years ago but does that really matter? The holocaust should be held up for all time as an example of the level of depravity human beings are capable of descending into. FACT/OPINION
• The Jews who survived the holocaust were traumatized and fearful of everyone. They weren't the only traumatized victims coming out of that war by a long shot but they were victimized by one of the modern, smartest, and civilized societies at that time. They didn't settle for taking them out back and shooting them in the head. No, the Germans applied there well known engineering talents to make sure the killings were as efficient as possible. FACT
• In 1948 the land known as Palestine was actually part of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
• The UN partition plan to re-defined the new borders was accepted by Israel but not by the Arabs. FACT
• 5 Arab countries attacked Israel in an all out offensive war. They lost. FACT
• Israel occupied territory as a result of the war. FACT
• The Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians disavowed responsibility for the land lost and declared the occupied territory as Palestine even though the Arabs never agreed to the partitioning plan before they attacked.  FACT
•  Palestine was the mechanism put in place to give the Arabs something which they could attack Israel with. FACT
• In 1967 Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and the Saudi Arabians built up their military forces aided by the USSR in a plan to attack Israel and claim the entire area Jew free. Israel countered before the Arab armies attacked. But make no mistake the Arabs were going to attack but their incompetent leaders were poor military planners. The Arabs lost and as a result Israel occupied more land to create a larger and more defensive posture in which to fight off future attacks. FACT/OPINION
• In 1973 the Arabs once again  attacked Israel without warning. FACT 
• The Arabs were supplied with the latest weapon systems of the day by the USSR. This included Sanger wire guided anti-tank missiles, infrared night scopes for their tanks, and the most advanced SAM systems of the time period. They also outnumbered the Israeli's 7 to 1 in tanks and 8 to 1 in number of soldiers. And they once again lost and Israel ended up occupying more land. FACT
• Israel returned the Sinai territory to Egypt after the Egyptian leader agreed to recognise Israel as a state and declare peaceful relations between both countries. This arrangement has lasted 45 years but is in danger of being discarded by recent events. FACT
• The land Israel occupied as a result of these wars have mimicked the time honored way of state building used by every country of the planet. FACT
• Factions in the Middle East have succinctly said that they seek nothing less than the destruction of Israel. They proclaim this often and loudly with no room for ambiguity. FACT
• Israel will never be destroyed. They have the ultimate weapons to initiate a devastating attack on every country in the world who would try to force the issue. It would be a pyrrhic battle in which no winners will emerge from but I have no doubt that the Israelis would go down in flames and take all of their antagonists with them before they could be forced to abandon their state. FACT/OPINION

If Israel's antagonists could accept or acknowledge any of these FACTS it would go a long way in solving the outstanding issues. Every thing I have listed as FACT is true. If someone reads this and disagree please explain why I am wrong.

TBC...

Continued Madness...

I have not posted any thing new in a while because frankly there has not been much worth talking about. The same ole tripe is being spewed around the Internet international forums and commentaries. But I am itching to put something in writing so I can clear my head and move on. Some of the recent subjects that have caught my attention are:

• The US Congressional leaders have failed miserably in discharging the duties they were elected to perform.Period. 
•  All parties deserve an equal amount of the blame. The recent budget fight highlighted their massive failures in managing the countries affairs. I wish the US Constitution allowed for the citizens to call for a popular vote of no confidence that can force early elections to replace those currently holding their positions.  A simple Yes or No ballot with a 2 week advance warning to cut down the amount of time the incumbents will have for campaigning. Leaving incompetents to finish their terms just gives them more time to screw things up. I believe this type of voting procedure would also force incumbents to do a better job knowing they can be replaced anytime by the electorate.
• Some of the more egregious decisions have been the adding of anti-choice provisions to the budget debates and carelessness with proposals involving cuts in Medicare.
• If cuts do need to made in the Medicare program they should be approached in a more forthright manner that does not panic those who depend on that service.
• Tax payers have been paying the Medicare tax in their wages since before I was born and they deserve a government who can take that money and ensure a benefit to those paying for it.
• Medicare can also be a good tool to lower the costs associated with health care. Health care delivery organizations can negotiate for cost reductions or Medicare could ban any organization from receiving and treating people using Medicare. This is especially effective when dealing with individuals or small groups of health care providers. Doctors have  used this same negotiating strategy with the HMO's and PPO's by forming groups of doctors into billing consortium's who would not accept particular HMO or PPO patients without negotiating fees they found acceptable. I actually developed a computer system in the early 90's that supported these types of operations. The government has the leverage to lower the cost of health care but they need to use it and place the public's interest first without regard to the health care special interests groups which always seem to get what they want.
• How long will the US last if our leaders are so unwilling to fulfill their obligations and put the people that represent first.? Our current political parties do nothing but attack each other relentlessly on every single issue. In our system of government their should be a whole set of issues and problems that the parties could find a middle ground on and leave the extremist positions to the fringe but today they practice the opposite.
• It's time for our military to leave the middle-east. There is nothing for the US to gain in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Keeping a good watch and leaving a couple of drones in the afflicted areas in case they are needed. The drone strategy has been the most successful tool in the fight against the extremists. They walk around looking at the sky wondering if they are next. They can not use any modern communication methods without being tracked so that will hamper their organizational efforts.
• The next time a terrorist act is carried out on US citizens the response should be brutal and immediate to those responsible.  Just like Israel's responses when attacked. The US has the capability to kill, maim, or just blowup anyone in the world without the use of ground troops and all of the associated costs of full wartime deployments. Terrorists will continue their attempts to attack and they might yet succeed at anytime but that is a manageable risk. The world is just to big to police constantly alone with wavering or non-existing support from our "allies" and we should accept that. 
• The US needs to stop worrying about what other countries think and say about the US. Most of it is bullshit. Many of the people complaining would absolutely kill for a visa to the US so they can go to the US. The US is populated by people who left behind their shit hole countries to find a better life and the majority of them have found it.
• We need to tackle the illegal immigration issue in the country. When US courts start listening to advice and complaints from the Mexican President we need to respond with a question of our own. Why are people desperate to leave Mexico and shouldn't the President of Mexico be doing something about the reason the people want to leave Mexico. And in a follow up we should ask them how they deal with illegal immigration on their southern border. They guard their border and deal harshly with people they catch coming into the country illegally.

Support...

I need to articulate some of my current thoughts on various topics.

1. I am a supporter of Israel because of the shrill denunciations and lies spread around the world by it's opponents.
2. I support the Freedom of Choice in the abortion debate and abortion issues have no buisness being injected into the budget fight.
3. I support neither the democrats or republicans that run the US. All they do is posture and compaign 24/7 totally ignoring the job they were elected to. If they were in the private sector I would fire them all.
4. I support bringing all US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan home and limiting continued interaction with either of their governments. Governments who were giving a chance re-build their countries without obstacles like Sadamm Hussein and the Taliban.
5. I support regulation in the private sector that require companies to give US citizens first grab at jobs and decreasing the number of H1-B visas.
6. I support adding small tariffs on imports from countries that erect barriers to US participation in their economies.
7. I support toal non-intervention on other countries problems no matter what. If it doesn't effect the US directly or compromise security.
8. I support aggressive government insentives for companies creating new energy sources which lower the US depedance on oil.

And life goes on...

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post but it hardly matters since the world situation in general have been nothing new. However, there are a few things that have crossed my mind and provoking comment.

• The situation in Libya has been a real mess compared to the revolts in the other middle-east and Africa states. The UN agreed to provide air cover for the rebels and it has only been partially effective and I doubt the rebels will prevail. The interesting part will be to see how Qaddafi deals with all of the countries who voted to remove him from power.
• I don't understand why the Presidents and leaders that are being asked to give up power have not done so voluntarily? All of the leaders in question have been in power for 20 years or more. Why don't they just grant themselves a generous retirement package and leave all the turmoil to someone else? 
• You could of heard a pin drop when the UN, Arab League, and French agreed to support a no-fly zone in Libya and the US pretty much stayed quite in the background.  After the UN resolution was passed the countries who voted fro it realized they did not have the means to enforce the no-fly zone. Any attempt they tried to make without the US would become a bloody mess. Without the US Qaddafi's air-defense system would have been much harder to neutralize. Most of the participating countries only had fighters that are not tremendously effective on ground targets. The US provided A-10's and gun ships that are specifically built to attack ground targets. The US also supplied the air traffic AWACS needed to run an air war. The other countries could have eventually succeeded but they would have taken a lot more damage then they have.
• The Libyan mess has also shown the sheer idiocy of the people who criticize US actions around the world. They rage about Qaddafi's brutality but seemed perfectly willing to accuse Saddam Hussein's brutality or the Taliban's enlightened rule. The same people clamoring for the US to stop becoming involved in other countries affairs are castigating it now for not getting involved more in places like Bahrain and Yemen. I wish they could make up their mind or shut up.

And the winner is ...

Something short to vent my frustration over the number of idiots participating in online discussions or the comment threads for posted stories. CNN is a top information provider. I won't vouch for the quality of information they pump out but the organization itself is highly visible.  The feedback discussions on their website are filled with an over abundance of liars, trolls, and outright idiots. For every intelligent and on topic comment there are 50 comments that get posted by people with an IQ of 50.  The web is polluted with such missives but the ratio of good versus bad on the CNN site is overwhelming. End of rant.

Consequences of Hate...

Well it looks like all the years of US bashing are finally bearing fruit. 90% of the complaints directed toward the US have been unsubstantiated  facts and out right propaganda. Lately it's been fashionable to claim that the US created and controlled the governments currently going through some difficulties. I call BS on this. During the cold war the US options basically came down to supporting anyone who was against the USSR. During the cold war the US was often blackmailed by those small country leaders who played the US and USSR against one another to gain US support. If the US couldn't oblige the USSR certainly would have provided the support.The US has always needed someone stable they could work with in country to country relations. It is the US governments responsibility to work on behalf of the US citizens to ensure and it's safety and prosperity . The well being of any other country has always been secondary. The US has been looking out for number 1 just like every other country on the planet looks after their own. The US prizes stability above all else. It is the citizens of a country who are most responsible for their circumtances. The countries currently in upheaval have always had the option of overthrowing their governments. Of course a lot of people will most certainly be killed but if the government is so bad sacrifices will need to be made. The citizens of any country greatly outnumber any governments military. With the easy availability of weapons those who want to rebel have the means. Iran used mass suicide charges using their citizens and even their children to fight off Iraq and it worked. Where their is the will there are always means.

However those who have been the loudest complainers are now castigating the US for not helping the rebel groups in Libya. Their rational for getting the US involved is to remove Libya's current government. They have proclaimed Qaddafi a vicious dictator who is killing the countries citizens. Now I have pretty much the same opinion Qaddafi but I see no reason the US needs to do anything. The same people calling for US intervention in Libya never seemed to be able to portray Saadam Hussien in the same light and called the US removal of him a "illegal war" and regime change was an unjust method. So this time around it looks like the US is going to heed their advice and this will guarantee the rebels will lose and Qaddafi will remain. This time the US was content on letting the UN work on the problem. It took the UN 3 weeks to make a decision and in that time Qaddafi's forces are defeating the rebels. The missile attacks and arial based attacks are now bombing military resources to slow down the defeat of the rebels. Tese actions are only going to slow down but not stop Qaddafi from putting down the rebels. There isn't a country in the world with the balls to actually send troops into the country to help the rebels defeat Qaddafi on the ground. Of course the US has demonstrated on more than one occasion that it has both the means and willingness to enter into such situations with any hope of success but have been castigated for years for our efforts. A lot of countries participating in the UN response didn't expect the US to defer to the UN and the Arab League and wait around until those groups made a decision. This is only a small example of what is going to happen in the future. The hate and lies constantly hurled against the US has started making US involvement in situations like this politically unsupportable by the US citizens. The absence or reduced presence of US power is not going to be kind to any who seek to improve their society. In fact the autocrats and dictatorial governments will become stronger and be harder to topple in the future.  

First Step...

One of the most popular critiques hurled against the US is that the country is an Empire or Imperial in nature.  This argument is then used as the base fact to support a wide range of other complaints against the US. If the truth is to be attained we will first need to expose this nonsense before continuing on to addressing other concerns and complaints. However, by definition and characteristics the US is not and has never been an Empire.

Many people assume that America is already an empire by being the world's only superpower, by virtue of its military supremacy, economic power, global influence, technological prowess, and world-wide alliances. The US can reasonably described as a hegemony but that status was only achieved over a long time period with the cooperation of a whole lot of other countries and a lot of luck. It was mainly then world spanning wars of the 40's and 50's that enabled the US to rise above others in the global hierarchy. 

The US political system is volatile. The presidential term limits alone create turnover after only 4 or 8 years and that is not enough time to apply an integrated and dominate foreign policy consistency. Every turnover of power presents a situation where those now in charge do not support all of the previous administrations policies. Even small changes can derail the countries foreign policy focus.

The Empire or Imperial descriptions are not correct. The US is often attacked because of it's military actions. The US is accused of warring for oil resources and in one sense they are. It is critical to the US as well as a whole lot of other countries that the oil continue to be distributed fairly across the globe. The US could have seized the oil resources in either Iraq or Kuwait by virtue of it's military strength but did not. Oil is sold at a market price that the producer countries can effect to their benefit thus allowing them to create great wealth for both the producer country and it's peoples but a lot of these governments never let any of that wealth to help it's impoverished people. These countries could be some of the most successful on the planet but the are not due to the type of rulers in that part of the world.

There have also been complaints about Western corporations stealing the oil. Most of the oil producing countries would still be barren if not foe these western countries who built the infrastructure needed to extract the oil in the first place. However, once everything was set up and running smoothly these countries "nationalized" all corporate assets with little or no compensation to those who lost their assets. If the oil producing countries are not careful they could find someone else willing to "Globalize" out the oil infrastructure from beneath them if the oil supply becomes unreliable due the the incompetence of the governments involved.

It's Always Something....

It seems that a large number of people in the world believe the US is somehow on the verge of collapsing or losing it's mojo but is that really true?  If take a good look at US history you can't help but note that the US has always been burdened with both actual and potential society wrecking issues. Just some of the examples are:

1. The founding of the US started off with a Revolutionary War involving England, France, and Spain who were all striving to become imperialist powers at the time.
2. The Declaration of Independence,Bill of Rights, and basic laws were created by the wealthy land owners at the time with very little if any input from the average citizen.
3. The time period when the US was spreading across the land was filled with violence against any natives who happened to get in the way of progress.  
4. The US prosecuted and luckily survived a brutal civil war. Most people claim that slavery was the only issue but slavery was low on the list of differences. The Federal government at the time was weak and divided and those seeking wealth and power saw their chance to grab some. If the south had been victorious it would have opened the door to balkanization resulting in the present day US being divided into many countries.
5. The disparity between the wealthy elite and the regular citizens was wider than it is today by a long shot.
6. The US suffered through a paralyzing depression where over 1/3 of the country was unemployed.
7. The US fought in WW1 and WW2 which bookended the depression.
8. The US fought in the Korean war.
9. The US fought a cold war for 30+ years.
10. Severe racism was endemic in the US. From the founding of the country to modern times.  
11. The US fought in the Vietnam war.
12. The US has had to deal with hostile middle eastern countries to secure oil supplies since the 1950's. Todays on-going hostility is nothing new.
13. There were "Death to America" chants in the middle east going back to the 1950's.

The US has always been struggling with debilitating trends and actions. The politics of these issues have divided the countries citizens many times. It's hard to look back on US  history and declare these were the good times. Sometimes things were good and sometimes they were not. As the world changes around us the US will always be changing to fit in. There will be both success and failure along with ups and downs. There are no absolutes when it comes to describing a country that is so diverse. The US can not claim perfection in any way but if we are lucky the country will never stop striving for that perfection. The US is still the most popular country where many people want to immigrate to from just about every country on the planet. The most important component in the allur of the US is that the country has always offered "Hope" to those seeking to better their lives and the US is still a country where "rags to riches" stories are created on a regular basis.

On-going Mayhem...

Well the revolutions in the middle east are proceeding as expected. Egyptians are challenging the military caretaker government to start addressing their original complaints such as releasing all political prisoners, releasing all the documentation detailing the former regime's actions, and schedule an orderly plan to replace the military caretakers and allow the citizens more control over who runs the country. As far as I can tell there has been little progress and thus the people are back on the streets.

Meanwhile in Libya the entrenched government is getting stronger by the day and there is a very good chance the existing regime will not collapse. Of course the international community is busy holding meetings and avoiding the question on what support should be given to those fighting the government. A couple more days of non-action will insure that the current government can finish their pogrom and resume control over the country.

In both of these conflicts the people pushing for change really have no idea what type of government they want to replace the old with. These seemingly spontaneous rebellions have all been about removing the current governments with little thought about how to create and organize a workable replacement government. The longer the opposition groups argue and fight amongst themselves the faster their countries will continue a descent into chaos. You just need to look at how Iraq has utterly failed to take advantage of having their former despised leadership eliminated and given a chance to start over. Make no mistake the US accomplished their military objectives in removing the former government. It was never the military responsibility to organize a replacement government. You would think with all of the suffering the Iraqis have dealt with would motivate some good faith efforts by their citizens in rebuilding their country but they are wasting their opportunity to do this. Same thing with Afghanistan. The Taliban government was shown the door and the Afghans have failed to take advantage of that.  In Egypt the former government was kept in power with strong military support and now the military has managed to eliminate the middle man and take all the power for themselves. The Lybian opposition is comprised of different tribal groups that hate each other and fight amongst themselves which will guarantee that a common government never gets implemented. The whole country is on the verge of being "balkanized" and everyone knows how well that type of governing usually works. 

  More later...